Friday, May 27, 2016

The Nauru government on Friday announced that the island's Parliament this month passed a number of laws to bring the nation up to international human rights standards.

A new act replaces a former criminal code that dated back to 1899 and was based on old Queensland laws.

[...]

Sentences such as the death penalty, imprisonment with hard labour and solitary confinement have been removed, and penalties for sexual offences, including those relating to children, have been increased.

Also repealed: laws against homosexuality and attempted suicide, and the law permitting marital rape. However, both abortion and "criminal defamation" remain illegal.

This leaves only Papua New Guinea and Tonga with the death penalty still on the books in the South Pacific. Neither has executed anyone for decades, and hopefully we'll soon be able to convince them repeal this barbaric punishment.